What's A Few Centuries Between Soulmates?
by libug22
Summary: What if a freak accident took away your soulmate before you barely even had the chance to meet? What if you got another chance in the weirdest way? Their love spans across time. Meant to be in every lifetime.
1. Chapter 1

Ok this is my first fic ever. It took me awhile to get the first chapter out. If you like it, which i hope you do, be patient with me. It might take some time to get each chapter up. But hopefully it will get easier as i go. oh, and i own nothing related to PLL.

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><p>"I recognized you instantly. All of our lives flashed through my mind in a split second. I felt a pull so strongly towards you that I almost couldn't stop it." ― J. Sterling<p>

1834

The sun is high in the sky, it's a warm day at the end of summer. Emily is walking through town taking care of some errands. She stops in at the general store for some odds and ends her family needs on the farm. Seems like any other day as she walks back out into the sun. Looking up at the sky she wipes the sweat off of her forehead and coughs as she walks through a cloud of dust from a wagon going way too fast through town. She watches as the wagon's wheel hits a rock and something flies off the back.

It's a horseshoe. And it's headed right towards a girl that's standing across the road. A girl who is staring right at her and seems somewhat distracted. Emily's eyes lock with the girl's deep brown ones, she's beautiful. The horseshoe slams into the girls head and she falls to the ground.

Emily rushes over to the girl. She's breathing but unconscious. She takes her hat off and puts in under the girls head, determined to stay with her until she wakes up. She tells herself it's just to make sure the girl's ok.

About 20 minutes later Emily feels the girls soft hand twitch in her own. She's not sure when she grabbed it, but it feels natural. The girl opens her eyes and looks as if she's about to panic.

"Hey..hey there. you're alright. you're fine. I got you." Emily says trying to calm her down.

"What...happened?" the girl's hoarse voice does something strange to Emily that she doesn't want to think about right now. She shook her head and went on to explain,

"You got hit in the head with a horseshoe," she just sees more confusion in the girl's eyes, "if i hadn't seen it all for myself, I wouldn't believe it either. I'm Emily by the way." she introduces herself hoping to find out the girl's name.

A little smirk crosses the girls face, just for a second, before she responds, "I know who you are, I'm Paige." she continues as she sits up "my family is somewhat new to town...woah.." Paige goes to lay back down feeling a bit dizzy. She was aiming for the hat, but her head somehow ended up in Emily's lap. She was too out of it to move, that's what she told herself anyway.

"Yea, you might not want to get up quite yet." Emily says as she puts her hand on Paige's head...to comfort her of course. "Here let's move out of the way a little and we can sit for a few minutes until you can stand," Emily moves to lean against a building and helps Paige over. And she won't admit it, but she's happy when Paige lays her head back down in her lap.

"Thanks Emily, for staying and helping me." Paige looks up at Emily with the sweetest smile, which in turn, makes Emily smile back as she speaks, "It's no problem at all. I couldn't just let you lay there all by yourself."

Emily remembers then what Paige said a few minutes ago, "So how exactly do you know who I am?" she wonders out loud.

"Oh, ha, yea. My dad is the new pastor at the church. I've seen you there every Sunday since we moved here. My dad told me your name and that your family owns the farm right outside of town." Paige looks away getting nervous, "My dad wanted me to try and become friends with you. I'm not so good at making friends."

Paige looks really sad now and Emily has to hold herself back from giving the girl a hug, thinking it might scare her away.

"Well, I guess that horseshoes hit you for a reason huh?" Emily smirks at Paige, "I think we'll be fast friends." she says giving Paige a warm smile.

Paige blushes and looks away again. "Yea, I'd say that's pretty lucky." She reaches up to touch the bump on her head from the horseshoe. "And I feel like if this bump was just a tad over this way," she explains and touches her temple, "It probably wouldn't have turned out this way."

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><p>2014<p>

Paige walks out to the field while looking around at her competition. She's always been competitive, but today she's trying out for the field hockey team at her new school. She wants to prove herself, show them what the new girl is made of. She's bringing everything she's got. While she's looking around she doesn't notice the team running out to the field. Someone slams into her from behind, but before she can say anything, the tall girl with long brown hair shouts "Watch it!" over her shoulder and continues running.

She hears cheers behind her, "Go Spencer!" and "Yea Spence, go get em!" Paige looks back towards the bleachers and immediately feels as if someone ran into her again, from the front this time and taking all the air from her lungs. She can't take her eyes off this girl, all tan skin, long raven hair, and dark rich brown eyes...that are staring back at her. Paige looks away quickly, not entirely sure what just happened, but finding herself wanting to impress the girl. She jogs out to catch up with the rest of the team, more than ready to play.

It's a hot and humid day, the sun is high in the sky and there are no clouds to give relief. An hour into tryouts Paige is standing at one end of the field, breathing hard, with sweat dripping down her back, but ready to run another drill.

She's doing well so far. With tryouts and with the girl, she got a smile from her. She glances over to the bleachers and is disappointed when she sees the girl getting up to leave with 3 others. She shakes her head and gets ready.

The coach blows the whistle and she takes off as fast as she can. She just has to be the first to make it to the ball. She reaches her stick out to the ground to take it. Out of the corner of her eye she see another ball. In the air. Flying towards her. And fast. She sees it too late.

There's a white light in front of her eyes, she feels grass under her hands, her knees are digging into the dirt. Then she's on her back and everything starts to go black. And then nothing.

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><p>Emily was walking through the parking lot outside the football field. Her and her friends had just been watching Spencer during field hockey tryouts. Spencer had told them beforehand to leave early and grab them all a table at The Grille and she would meet up with them.<p>

A sharp pain on the side of her head, almost causing her to fall. She caught herself on a random car. She looked up to find her friends staring at her looking worried. "I'm ok guys, that was really weird though."

Emily, along with Hanna, Aria, and Alison, were now sitting at The Grille waiting for Spencer.

She was playing with her phone when the sharp pain came back making her shoot up from her seat. It wasn't going away this time. She doubled over, hands on her head and her vision fuzzy, and she passed out.

Emily was waking up as Spencer was running in the door.

"Emily! What happened!?" Spencer yells as she continues to run and kneel next to Emily on the floor.

"I don't know, my head just hurt really bad right here," she explains touching a finger to her temple.

All the girls were surrounding her looking worried again.

"I'm fine guys, it's completely gone now, I'm ok." she says to try and get them to stop worrying. "Why so late Spence?" she continues, changing the subject.

"Oh, actually, i was at the hospital. The new girl that was trying out for the team...she just died...hit in the temple with a rogue field hockey ball..."

"What.." Emily whispers, completely stunned.

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><p>If only Paige had seen that ball a couple seconds earlier, to give her enough time to move, even just a centimeter.<p>

She got hit in just the right spot, or the wrong spot, if you want to look at it that way. The thinnest part of her skull, right in the middle of her temple.

Paige made it to the hospital, but the hemorrhage caused by the blow was too far along and they couldn't save her.

Just a centimeter. That's all it would have taken for Paige to still be here. To make the field hockey team, to start her senior year, to find that girl from the bleachers. But a freak accident took it all away. And because of this, there are other people who's lives won't happen how they were meant to. But don't worry, fate is coming up with a new plan.


	2. Chapter 2

I just want to thank everyone who followed, favorited, and left reviews! Knowing there are a few people who actually like my story and want to know what happens next definitely helped motivate me to get this chapter out. hope you like it!

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><p>"People from the past, have a tendency to walk back into the present, and run over the future." ― Anthony Liccione<p>

chapter 2

2014

It's Sunday night, and Emily is at The Brew working her last closing shift. School started last week, and she usually works weekends and the afternoons she doesn't have swim practice during the school year so she has time at night for homework.

She's wiping down tables and putting up chairs. Her thoughts are drifting to what happened a few days ago.

Emily never even met the new girl, Paige, she learned her name when Spencer went into more detail about what happened. But she does remember her from watching tryouts. Well, she remembers two things about her. The first being her ass. Something she may have noticed as soon as the girl ran out onto the field. The second being her eyes and the feeling she got when she looked into them.

She had been checking Paige out when Spencer ran into her, and remembering why she was there, cheered for her friend before diverting her eyes back to Paige. With every intention to stare at the girls ass again, but instead connecting with the her intense eyes. Eyes that are now burned into her mind. She has to admit that she can't quite remember Paige's face, but she won't ever forget those eyes. And the feeling that went along with them, like Paige was looking right into her soul.

This is why her mind keeps drifting there. She doesn't know anything about this girl except the color of her eyes, how nice her ass is, and how she died. But she still feels as if she's lost something. She can't explain it. And even more, she can't explain the pain she felt right before Spencer told her Paige had died from a blow to the head to that exact spot. It hurts her head to think about, so she doesn't. She brushes it off telling herself that there's no way the two things are connected.

As Emily finishes her closing duties, she pushes the thoughts away to get into the right state of mind for studying. She's staying late to study at The Brew because it's the only place she will be left alone to focus on her homework.

She needs the peace and quiet. Ever since she found out about her girlfriend cheating on her a couple weeks ago, things have been rough. And of course her mom won't stop asking her questions.

The thing is, she should feel a tiny bit guilty for checking Paige out and feeling what she did. Samara is great, well, before she out about the cheating. She's trying to give her a second chance, believing Samara when she said it was a mistake. But Emily is finding it rather difficult. She's been trying, but it's seems like she's just lost all attraction towards the girl after what she did. She was never in love with Samara, they've only been together 2 months, but it still hurts. She can tell her feelings are fading, and she knows she doesn't want to be with her. Emily has never broken up with anyone before. And it's not helping that Samara has been trying so hard to make it up to her. All the texts and phone calls are sweet, but they are starting to get annoying. She needs to figure out how to end things.

Emily throws the towel she was using to wipe everything down into the tub, and brings the tub into the kitchen to set by the sink. She's done. Finally getting to settle down into her favorite couch by the front window. She pulls out the book they were assigned from English and starts reading. She's surprisingly into 'To Kill A Mockingbird', only being assigned 3 chapters, she's already halfway through the book from reading before work.

She stifles a yawn not realizing before how tired she is, and checks her phone to see it's 11 pm, she's been reading for 2 hours. She shoots off a quick text to her mom to let her know she's still alive, and settles back in to finish the chapter she's on before heading home. And not even 5 sentences later she's drifting off to sleep, not able to keep her eyes open any longer.

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><p>Over in the kitchen there's a coffee maker they use for making the house coffee. It's shorting, and there are sparks flying out of the outlet. Emily must have been so caught up in thinking about Paige, Samara, her mom, and her homework that she forgot to push the button to turn it off. A spark flies in just the right direction to catch the curtain hanging down from the window. Then another spark, and another. Soon enough the whole curtain is lit up and the smoke reaches the detector setting off the loud beeping.<p>

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><p>Toby is halfway up the stairs to his apartment above The Brew when he hears something. His eyes go wide in realization and he races up the rest of the stairs. Knowing the doors downstairs will be locked he runs through his apartment to the other door that leads inside The Brew.<p>

When he gets to the bottom of the stairs he immediately notices smoke coming from underneath the door to the kitchen. He starts to head that way but has to do a double take when he notices Emily passed out on the couch. He wasn't expecting anyone to be here at this hour.

Toby runs and slides on his knees next to the couch and starts shaking Emily awake,

"Emily!? Emily wake up! You have to get up, we gotta get out of here!" he yells at her until she opens her eyes groggily,

"humph What do you want?" she asks, not remembering where she is in her half asleep state.

"How are you asleep right now?!" Toby asks her with a touch of worry in his voice.

Emily opens her eyes, confused, and looks at him. Toby sees it on her face, the moment she hears the smoke detector and realizes what's happening.

"Oh my God! What's going on!?" Emily squeaks out, starting to panic.

"There's a fire in the kitchen, let's get outta here." Toby speaks hurriedly as he helps Emily up from the couch, she's starting to cough from smoke filling her lungs.

They make their way out the front door, gasping in the fresh air.

"Oh my God Toby, thank you. I was so tired, I must have been completely out of it if the alarm didn't even wake me up." Emily gets out between breaths.

Toby looks at her with a smirk, "We all know you're a heavy sleeper Em, but that was scary. It's lucky I was getting home now and not in an hour like I was supposed to. I don't even want to think about could have happened." He reaches out an arm towards Emily and she falls into him, holding on for dear life. She doesn't want to think about it either.

But she can't help to think that she wishes Paige had been lucky too.

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><p>1834<p>

Emily just walked Paige home after sitting with her for awhile after her accident. She wanted to make sure the girl wouldn't faint if she stood up too soon. She tried making small talk while they sat, but figured Paige must have been too out of it to say much back. And after finding the courage to ask Paige to meet up tomorrow she walked her home and told her to get some rest.

She's now walking through town finishing up her errands and thinking about the strange feelings she had while with Paige. When Paige laid her head in her lap, or when she smirked at her, or smiled. She thought about how much she liked playing with the girl's hair, and the feel of it between her fingers. Emily isn't exactly sure what it was, but she does know she's excited to see Paige for lunch tomorrow.

She finishes off her last errand at the Doctor, picking up some medicine for her baby brother Matthew, and heads home for dinner.

When she gets there her mother rushes up to her wiping her hands on a cloth before taking her by the shoulders and sitting her down at the table,

"Where have you been?! You should have been home hours ago, you had me worried sick!" she says as she sits down in the chair next to Emily.

"Mama I'm fine. A friend had a little accident, she got hit on the head so I was just sitting with her to make sure she was ok," Emily looks away and smiles thinking about Paige being her friend now, "and then i walked her home before I finished up the errands." she finishes and hands her mother the medicine.

"Well that was a very nice thing to do, you're the sweetest girl," her mother sighs and looks towards Matthew "your brother has been feeling dreadful though, so thank you for grabbing this before coming home."

After dinner she said goodnight to her parents before giving her little brother a kiss on the forehead and a big hug, "Night Matty, I love you, I hope you feel better tomorrow."

He smiles up at her lovingly, "Night night Emmy, love you too."

Emily went to her room, turned on her lantern and laid down to read before going to sleep. But the medicine didn't seem to be working for her brother, and a crying 3 year old does not do well for concentrating. So she grabbed her lantern and book and climbed out her window as quietly as she could.

As she made her way across the field to the barn, she let herself think of Paige again. She just wanted to think about those eyes that captivated her so much.

She pushed the thoughts away as she climbed the latter up to the loft in the barn. She settled into the hay pile and started to read. She always came up here to read because is was quiet and peaceful, and she liked the sounds the horses made in the stalls beneath her. Although she didn't usually read up here at night. The lantern only giving off just enough light to read by.

Straining her eyes to read made her grow tired rather quickly. And up in her favorite spot, reading her favorite book, she fell asleep. The last thing on her mind was just an image, that of Paige staring at her from across the road, and her last thought was her wondering why Paige had been looking at her so intensely.

Emily had always moved a lot in her sleep, tonight was no exception. She flipped over and her arm flung out to the side, knocking the lantern over. The glass broke on the floor of the loft and instantly lit a fire to the hay it landed on. Fast moving, it engulfed the entire pile. Emily didn't wake up in time.

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><p>Emily's father was up with Matthew when he saw the flames coming from loft window of the barn. He sat Matthew down on his bed and told him not to move.<p>

He yelled to his wife, "Fire in the barn, run to town and grab as many people as you can!"

He then made his way to Emily's room so he could wake her up to help with the fire. When he didn't find her there, and noticed her lantern gone and the window open, he knew exactly where she was.

He started moving as fast as possible, grabbed a bucket and ran. When he got to the well, 20 feet from the barn he heard it. A scream to piercing it shattered his heart. And then nothing. They were too late. But he went on to fill his bucket with water. If she was gone, they still needed to get her out of there.

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><p>Paige wakes up with a jerk. She looks out her window noticing it's still dark out before realizing she drenched in sweat. And she's getting hotter by the second. She brings her hand to her face, wiping the dripping sweat from her forehead and quickly retracts her hand, suprised at how hot her skin feels to the touch. She takes a deep breath, her lungs hurt. She tried again and again, but it's get worse with every breath. She starts to panic and her breaths come faster and faster, she can't get enough air in her lungs, she feels like she's suffocating. Her vision goes hazy as she gets light headed and passes out.<p>

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><p>Paige wakes up again with the sun shining on her face through the only window in her tiny room. She smiles when she remembers what today is. She brushes off what happened earlier, she's pretty sure it was just a dream. If not, then definitely caused by a dream she doesn't remember.<p>

After her horseshoe incident, her and Emily had sat for awhile making small talk. Although she didn't manage to say a whole lot, her head was killing her and she was a nervous wreck with laying in Emily's lap. Of course it only got worse once Emily started running her fingers through her hair.

Eventually Paige was able to stand. She gave Emily an awkward smile when she stood up next to her. Then Emily spoke up,

"So since we're friends now, I think it would be a good idea to eat a meal together. What do you think? Lunch tomorrow?"

Emily seemed so confident when she spoke, it made Paige's heart beat a little faster. She smiled at the girl before dipping her head and answering,

"Yea, I would like that," she looked up again before going on "Actually, I have to work in the morning at the saloon. If you come by around noon we can stay and eat."

Emily smiled, the most beautiful and biggest smile Paige had ever seen, "That sounds perfect. But let me help you home before I continue my errands."

When they got to Paige's house right next to the church down the street she hesitated trying to think of something to say. Before anything came to mind she felt something soft on her head. When she looked up she realized it was Emily's hand, she blushed and looked down once again.

"You should probably have the doctor look at this tomorrow, but for now just go in and get some rest." Emily tried to catch Paige's eye, smiling when she saw the blush on her cheeks.

"I will. Thanks again Emily, I'll see you tomorrow for lunch." Paige made herself look up into Emily's eyes once more before giving a little wave goodbye and stumbling clumsily inside.

And now she's laid here in bed replaying it all. Her head was still sore, but the ache was fading, she probably won't end up seeing the doctor like Emily said she should. And she's getting more excited for the day she pulled herself out of bed to get ready for work. And as she was washing and dressing her thoughts never strayed too far from Emily.

Ever since Paige first laid eyes on the girl on her first Sunday in Rosewood, strange thoughts have taken over her mind. She catches herself thinking about how beautiful Emily is. And of the feeling she gets in her stomach when she sees Emily smile or hears her laugh. She doesn't want to think about what it means, but she can't deny liking the feeling.

Paige knows these feelings aren't normal so she keeps it all in her head. She doesn't need to be causing any more problems. Her and her father haven't been getting on very well since her mother died a few months back before they moved to Rosewood. He was upset with her for taking the job at the saloon, stating "That is not a place for a proper lady to be working." So judging by that you can guess his reaction when Paige started wearing men's clothes. At first just at work, the reason being that it kept certain customers' hands to themselves. But after the first week she started to really like wearing them, finding them way more comfortable than her dresses. Soon after, she found a gun holster, and a gun. Granted she never had it loaded, she barely even knew how to shoot. She thought it would intimidate those handsy customers even more, and she was right. She didn't care about all the strange looks she got as long as she was left alone.

She deals with all the fighting with her father because she knows she's only beginning to find who she is. And as scared as she is about what she's finding, she's glad it's happening. Especially now with the chance of having Emily as her friend.

She leaves her house still deep in thought and starts walking towards the saloon. She glances up to sky to see if she can tell what the weather will be like today. And that's when she sees it. All the way across town, maybe farther, there's a tower of black smoke rising into the air.

A horrible feeling falls over Paige as she starts running. She's worried, there's a good chance she would know the person related to the fire, whether it's a business or a home, she's met most of the people in town at church.

As she's passing the saloon she spots her boss standing on the boardwalk out front,

"Duke! Do you know what happened there?" she asks, pointing up at the smoke.

"Tragic," he says "They're still working on the fire last i heard."

"Where? Who?" Paige breathes, barely managing to get the words out.

Duke looks at her, concerned "The Fields farm right outside town, their daughter was in the barn..."

"NO!" Paige doesn't give him the chance to finish before she runs off.

She's running as fast as she can, now wishing she had grabbed her horse from the town barn. Her head is pounding and she feels like she might pass out. But she has to get there, she has to know.

Paige skids to a stop on the dirt road leading up to the Fields' farm. The barn is in shambles. A line of men and women passing buckets from the well to the barn are working on putting out the last bit of the fire. She looks to the left where there's a wagon with a blanket covering something in the back. She recognizes Emily's parents from seeing them at church, standing next to the wagon. The man has a boy in one arm and his other arm is around his wife's shoulders, and Paige can tell from where she's standing that the woman is sobbing uncontrollably into her husbands shoulder.

"No! No no no...Emily..." Paige drops to her knees, hand covering her heart, tears streaming down her face. She can't believe this happened.

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><p>A few days later, using the excuse of her father being the pastor, Paige is sitting in a pew at the back of the church. She's not sure if she should be here, she didn't know Emily, she never got the chance. After the service Paige goes to pay her respects to the Fields.<p>

"Mr. and Mrs. Fields," she greets them taking each of their hands as she introduces herself, "I'm Paige McCullers. I only just spoke to your daughter for the first time the day before. I had an accident and she stayed with me until I felt better and walked me home," she looks down at her feet getting nervous, "She is the kindest person, and I wish we had gotten the chance to be friends like we had spoken about that day." forcing herself to look up again, and hold back her tears before she goes on, "Your daughter was an amazing person, I am so sorry for your loss."

Mrs. Fields spoke up then, with tears in her eyes, "Paige, yes, Emily told us about what happened. We were so proud of her for helping you. Thank you for coming, I know Emily would have wanted you here."

"You're welcome ma'm, if you need anything, help on the farm or someone to keep an eye on your son I'd be more than willing." Paige takes each of their hands again, ruffles Matthew's hair and heads out the door.

Later that night, just after dusk, Paige finds herself standing in front of Emily's grave. She can't stop wondering why this happened, still not quite believing it. She had finally spoken to the girl, and she gets taken away. Paige is trying to understand the ache in her chest, she doesn't know why this is effecting her so much, she barely knew Emily.

Although there was that weird dream she had, and as much as she doesn't want to believe they're connected, she can't help but see the similarities. It was so strange.

She looks out to the horizon, deep in thought and notices a storm coming. She figures she should get home, it's moving in fast. She bends down, placing the flowers she picked for Emily next to the gravestone. When she stands back up the storm is right over her. She grabs her hat just before the strong wind blows it from her head. It's a lot darker now and she feels drops of rain on her arms. Then she hears the thunder right before lighting strikes just 5 feet from her making her jump back. She turns to leave as another lighting strike makes it's way down from the sky, this time striking Paige.

There's a flash of light, then nothing.

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><p>2014<p>

Paige wakes up hurting all over.

"I just can't catch a break," she mumbles to herself as she opens her eyes.

The sun is bright and something feels different.

"I must have been out all night. And apparently I've started talking to myself." she sits up and looks over at Emily's gravestone, "huh, the flowers must have blown away with the wind."

She takes a closer look, the stone looks different. It's faded, her finger traces over Emily's name, and it's worn down. Almost like it's been here for years.

A loud beeping noise makes her jump up to her feet, cringing as her whole body protests the quick movement. She turns around to where she heard the sound coming from. Looking up she sees tall poles with strings hanging between them. Her eyes follow the strings for a ways where she finds some kind of yellow box hanging from them. She hears another beep and looks down farther. There are weird looking wagons, a lot of them, going in all different directions on what looks like a black road.

"What the hell!?" she breaths out, feeling herself start to panic.


	3. Chapter 3

so what happened was...both my laptop screen and phone screen broke at the exact same time. and then my daughter had 1 extra day off school for Thanksgiving, which is apparently all it takes to throw me off. then i got sick and didn't feel like doing anything. when i felt better it was the weekend which is always busy with a kid. then i had a massive headache for a couple days. but it's finally here.

i'm going to try my best to get one more chapter out before holiday break, and then i will probably work on the one after that all through break and get it up when the kid goes back to school. that's the plan anyways. we'll see how it goes.

also 2014 from here on out i think. i might do flashback but i haven't decided yet.

song credit in here "Count On Me" Bruno Mars

Chapter 3

2014

"Where the hell am I?"

Paige starts turning in circles, taking in her surroundings. She see what she thinks is the town. All those weird wagons are headed that way. The buildings are strange, and there are hardly any trees.

She's starting to get a handle on her breathing, now more curious than panicky. Although still scare out of her mind, she feels the town pulling her in, and she wants to find out more.

So instead of curling up on the ground by Emily's grave, which is what she felt like doing a few moments ago, she starts walking towards town.

Paige is about halfway to those hanging yellow boxes when she hears a sound she's never heard, and it's loud, and coming from the sky. She looks up to see what it is and gasps.

"Oh my God, it's falling! It's huge, and it's falling out of the sky!"

She turns around and looks frantically at the people she sees, wanting to save all of them from the metal thing in the sky. Her chest is heaving rapidly and she can't seem to calm herself down.

"Hey, you ok?"

Paige jumps and turns around to see a girl walking up to her.

"No! That thing is falling, we have to get people to safety!" Paige yells at her.

"Umm, ok, here why don't we sit down? the girl grabs Paige's hand and guides her over to a bench.

Paige looks at the girl with wide eyes.

"We can't sit right now! Its falling out of the sky!"

The girl looked confused, "It's not falling, it looks like it's flying just fine. Probably headed to Hawaii or something, call me jealous." she starts rambling, but doesn't seem worried so Paige starts to calm down, but is now incredibly confused.

"Flying? What do you mean? How can that thing fly? It's huge!" Paige asks

"Yes it is, and it's actually a lot bigger when it's on the ground...hold on, what's your name?" the girl asks.

"Paige." She holds out her hand for the girl. She may be scared and horribly confused, but that won't stop her from being polite.

"Hi Paige, I'm Hanna," the girl takes her hand and shakes it before continuing, "Now please tell me you were joking about the whole plane thing?"

"Plane? What's that?" Paige scrunches her eyebrows when she asks.

"What? You really don't know what a plane is? What year are you from?" Hanna jokes, but Paige doesn't catch on.

"1834." Paige says it like it's obvious.

"No, seriously," Hanna starts, but she really looks at the girl for the first time since she walked up to her. She takes in what she's wearing, her cowboy hat, the dark leather chaps over her pants, the white baggy shirt, and.."Is that a gun!?

"What? Oh, yea it is. I know girls don't usually carry guns.." Paige starts before Hanna cuts her off.

"No, I don't mean that. You just look like you're on your way to a costume party. Is the gun real? Do you have a license for it?" Hanna rambles off rather quickly.

"Um a costume party? These are just my clothes. The gun is real, I don't know what a license is, but I don't have one. It's not loaded, never is. It's just for show to keep the saloon customers' hands to themselves when I'm working." Paige explains, resting her hand on the her gun in it's holster.

Hanna just stares at her, mouth hanging open slightly, "Your serious." she says it more as a statement than a question.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be? I just need to figure out where I am, this place is so strange, and my father is probably wondering where I am by now." Paige looks down, she can feel herself starting to panic again so she takes a deep breath.

"I can tell you where you are. You're in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. And if you're telling the truth you should know that the year is 2014. Which would mean that YOU TRAVELED THROUGH TIME, THIS IS SO COOL!" Hanna jumps off the bench excitedly, but stops talking when she sees the terrified look on Paige's face.

"Hold on, Rosewood, that's where I'm from. But 2014? That's crazy, that can't be right. There's no way." Paige stands and looks around at the strangeness of the different Rosewood, taking it all in. "Oh my God, I did, didn't I? I traveled through time!"

Paige starts breathing faster, her heart feels as if it want to beat right out of her chest, and she clasps her hands together when she starts to feel herself shake. This keeps happening and all she can think about right now is that she really needs to keep it together so she can figure all this out. She calms down a bit when she feels an arm around her waist.

Hanna notices Paige struggling with what they've just discovered, "I know someplace we can go sit and relax, and maybe get you some food and water. We'll figure this out." Hanna says gently, and starts leading Paige towards town.

After a few minutes of walking, with the help of the comfort of Hanna's arm looped around her own, Paige is breathing easy and is now back to be curious about this world. She asks Hanna about planes again, and she doesn't really believe what she's told. Then she asked about the weird wagons, which are cars, and she learned that they don't need horses to pull them. But Hanna said her boyfriend would be able to explain it better. Next she asked about the ropes on the poles and the hanging yellow boxes. Hanna said the boxes are traffic lights, and they tell people driving the cars when they have to stop and when they can go. And the wires, not ropes, is where the electricity comes from to power everything.

"You have electricity!? Paige gasps. She'd only heard talk of someone building something called a telegraph that used electricity, but not much else other than it existed.

Hanna laughs, "Yea, we have it everywhere. We've come a long way Paige, you're gonna love it, I promise."

Paige smiles at Hanna glad she found someone willing to help her in this unbelievable situation.

Hanna smiles back, glad she was the one to find Paige. "You know, we're gonna have to find you some different clothes. I think my friend will have something that will be more you're style. She's actually working at the place we're headed."

Paige looks Hanna up and down, she'd been too distracted to notice her clothes before now. Hanna is wearing a very very short skirt, a shiny top, and shoes with spikes on the heels? She wondered to herself how she walks in those before she speaks, "Your clothes are strange, I hope she has something different."

"Ouch Paige, hurtful words. And for your information I am the most stylish girl in school." Hanna says in mock anger.

"Sorry." Paige mumbles looking down, " You still go to school? How old are you?"

"Of course!" Hanna exclaims "I'm 17. Were you not in school in 1834?" she asks.

"I'm 17 too, I stopped school when i turned 15, most kids do. But I needed to start working to help my dad. After my mother died, he didn't work for awhile." Paige explains, sadness flashing across her face, "But I can read and write, that's all I need."

Hanna scrunches up her face, "Oh Paige, I'm sorry about your mom. And I'm sorry to say, but you need a lot ore than that these days if you want to make a living. I'm in my last year of high school and then I'm going to college, probably for fashion, that's what I'm good at." Paige is learning that Hanna likes to ramble, but she finds it amusing.

"There's only a few colleges for women, I never thought I was smart enough so working at the saloon a good a job as any." Paige looks away, trying to hide the sadness on her face. She never really thought about more school, figuring it was impossible. But things in this time seem to better, and if she's stuck here school might be something she'd consider. And she's finding herself growing more curious with every new thing she learns from Hanna. With every step they take she sees more things that bring up more questions, but she decides to save them for later. Not only does she not want to overwhelm Hanna with questions, she also doesn't want to overwhelm herself with answers.

_"And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4, 3, 2, you'll be there..."_

Paige jumps and whips around in a circle trying to find where the noise is coming from.

"Oh sorry, hold on," Hanna says as she reaches into her bag, pulling something small out before holding it against her ear.

"Hey Em...Yea...What time are you off work?...ok...I'm actually on my way there...Yep...With a new friend...Paige...mmhm And I'm gonna need to borrow some clothes too...You'll see why...Alright see you in a few...Love you, bye."

Hanna looks at Paige and starts laughing.

"Oh man, I need to sit. I'm sorry..." Hanna puts an arm around her stomach when it starts to hurt from laughing so much. She heads right for a bench up ahead and sits down. "Your face! That's adorable!"

Paige's facial expression hasn't changed in the last couple minutes. Open mouthed, scrunched eyebrows, wide eyes, the look of utter confusion. She sits down next to Hanna,

"Forget my face! What is that thing?!" Paige gets out in somewhat of a squeal.

"I will remember that face for the rest of my life!" Hanna says as her laughter dies down, "It's a phone, you use it to talk to people. That was my friend who we are going to see. I guess my other two besties are meeting us there too when she gets out of work."

There are so many questions Paige wants to ask about what Hanna just said, but she's stuck on the phone at the moment. They stood up and started walking again.

"Come on, we're almost there." Hanna loops her arm around Paige's once again and pulls her to start walking, "I know you have questions, out with it."

"Well.." Paige doesn't know where to start, "Is it like a telegraph? I've only heard talk, but they say it's for communicating with other people. How does it work? How do you hear the voice of someone from that far away?" she shoots of every question that comes to mind.

"Woah hold on, I changed my mind, you're gonna need Spencer for this. She'll know all these answers, and she'll be meeting us later. If you can wait that long." Hanna giggles and smiles at Paige when she nods her response.

"Alright here we are." Hanna points to a building across the street.

"Wait," Paige says as she looks around and studies the building, "I know this building, it looks a little different but the structure is the same. This is the saloon I work at!" she says, her eyes lighting up, excited to see something familiar.

"Sweet! It's called The Rear Window Brew now, a coffee shop." Hanna explains.

"You have a whole shop just for coffee!? Paige exclaims, her eyes wider than Hanna has seen yet.

"We sure do, and we made it taste better too. There's also food, deserts and things. I'm telling you, one of the best inventions by far." Hanna begins pulling Paige across the street just as a car zooms by.

"Woah woah woah, those things go really fast, isn't there another way to get over there?" Paige questions pulling back on Hanna's arm.

Hanna smirks at Paige, "Don't worry, they have to stop if we start walking across, it's a law." she pats Paige's arm, "Come on, I'll buy you something while we wait for my friend to get off work."

When they reach the door Hanna holds it open for Paige to go in first. So she steps inside and is immediately awestruck with what she sees. Couches everywhere, with a few tables scattered around, curtains hanging down from the ceiling acting as dividers around some of the couches. Paige felt completely comfortable here and she couldn't explain it.

"Hey Han!"

Paige snaps out of her thoughts and looks to where she heard that voice, a voice she knows."

"Em...Emily?..." Paige whispers. She vaguely hears Hanna asking her a something, but everything is going fuzzy, she can't breath, and she feels dizzy.

Hanna catches her as she's falling, "Paige? Hey, you ok?" she asks as she's trying to hold her up. "Em, a little help, I think she fainted, must have been your beautiful face." she jokes.

"Ha ha, very funny Han. Let's get her to the couch. Where did you meet this girl? And what is she wearing?" Emily grabs Paige by the ankles and helps Hanna lay her down.

"I think that's something she should explain when she wakes up." Hanna sighs and settles into the armchair next to the couch to wait and shoos Emily away to finish up her work.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry guys! I know this took way longer than i said it would. I didn't have a chance to work on it at all while my daughter was on break (it may or may not have something to do with the fact that we binge watch The Legend Of Korra...twice.) And then it just took be a few more days to get back into our normal schedule. But here we are! and i'll try to update regularly, i can't promise every week, but i'll try my best. Enjoy :)

chapter 4

Emily is handing a customer their change when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulls it out and seeing that it's her girlfriend, head through the kitchen door.

"Hey Jack, I'm gonna take my break." she calls behind her not waiting for a response.

"Hey Samara, what's up?" grabbing a blueberry muffin ffrom the tray on the counter she settles onto a stool with the phone between her ear and shoulder so she can eat and talk at the same time.

"Oh...ok...Yea that's fine, we can hang out tomorrow or something...ok this weekend then...You know, you aren't making this easy...Because you keep cancelling our plans and going out with you friends!...Yes I'm serious, are you?...I can't do this right now I'm at work."

Emily hangs up and shoves the phone into her pocket, followed by a long frustrated sigh.

"This is not working." She mumbles to herself.

She's taking another bite of her muffin when her phone dings, and her stomach drops thinking it's Samara. But it's only Spencer.

**Spencer: Hey Em, Aria and I are going to head over to meet you when you get out of work. Try calling Hanna, she's not picking up for me.**

**Emily: Sounds good. I'm on break so I'll try Han right now.**

She presses send then dials Hanna.

"Hey Han...Did you see that Spence tried to call you?...ok well her and Aria are coming meet me when I get out...in an hour...oh you are? are you with someone?...who?...ookay cool...clothes, my clothes? why?...you're acting weird but ok...see you soon...love you bye."

"Huh, I wonder what she's up to." Emily says to herself as she eats the last bite of her muffin and head back out front.

About 15 minutes later Emily hears the bell signaling the door opening. When she looks up she sees a girl with long brown hair and cowboy hat walk in and stop dead in her tracks to look around the room, her mouth slighting open, almost as if she can't believe what she's seeing. She lets her eyes travel down the girl's body, taking in the outfit. And although weird, she also found it quite attractive. From the hat to the baggy linen shirt down to the chaps and

"Hey Han!" Emily calls when she sees her friend come in after the cowgirl.

"Emily..."

She turns her head to where she heard her name whispered to see the cowgirl falling and Hanna catching her.

"Paige? Hey! You ok? Em a little help, I think she fainted, must have been your beautiful face." Hanna calls to her with a strained voice from trying to keep the cowgirl from falling to the floor.

Finally putting it together that this is Paige, the friend Hanna told her about on the phone, she walks over to help.

"Ha Ha very funny Han. Let's get her to the couch. Where did you meet this girl? And what is she wearing?" She asks as she grabs the girls ankles, not missing how worn her boots are, and helps her to the couch.

Emily see an amused smile playing on Hanna's lips when she responds, "I think that's something she should explain when she wakes up."

Now knowing why Hanna asked for clothes Emily runs out to her car and grabs her Sharks track suit and team shirt from her duffel bag. She had come to work from practice so it's all she had. She sets in on the table in front of Hanna who gives her a thoughtful smile before looking back at Paige.

"I'm just gonna go finish up so I can clock out early and help with...whatever this is." Emily says, confused, and pointing from Hanna to Paige.

A few minutes later Emily is clocking out and she hears noises, tilting her head towards it she listens carefully and realizes it's mumbling, and coming from where Paige is. She throws her apron in the back and joins Hanna who's now sitting on her knees on the floor next to the couch Paige is on.

"Is she ok?" Emily asks as she kneels down next to Hanna noticing Paige's head rocking back and forth and looking quite sweaty.

"Yea, I think she's just dreaming." Hanna brushes hair from Paige's face only slighting worried about the girl. And feeling oddly close to her already.

"NO...Em..ily...no..the fire..should've..been there..saved you.." Paige mumbling again, and Emily notices that although she may be a bit sweaty, most of the moisture on the girls face is actually tears. Paige is crying in her sleep and Emily's heart aches before realizing what she just heard.

"Wait a second," looks at Hanna and back to Paige, "Did she just say my name?"

"Um, yea, that's the first thing she said when she started talking in her sleep." Hanna explained.

"She said it when you guys got here too didn't she?" Emily asks, her confusion now showing on her face.

"You hear that too?" Hanna looks at Emily and shrugs her shoulders, "I guess we just have to wait til she wakes up."

* * *

><p><em>Paige is running up the long dirt road that leads to the Fields' farm. Her lungs feel like she's been running for miles, and tears caused by the chill in the air are stinging her eyes. She brings up both hands to wipe them away. When she opens her eyes she staring up at the barn, engulfed in flames.<em>

_"Emily." she whispers as panic sets in._

_Paige runs into the barn, her panicked breathing causing to much smoke to invade her lungs, she doubles over in a coughing fit. She straigtens back up with determination and continues on to the ladder of the loft. The smoke is thicker in the loft and she can see the source of the flames on the other end of the loft. She sees Emily and hears her strangled cry. She's too late. Tears stream down her face, she needs to her out of here. Just before she reaches Emily the beams above her start to splinter._

_"NO! I can save you this time!" Paige moves to make her last attempt of saving her. And the roof collapses over Emily._

* * *

><p>Paige gasps. She opens her eyes and closes them again, the lights too much, her eyes are sore. She feels the tears on her face and realizes she was just dreaming. She squeezes her eyes shut tighter and more tears start to fall.<p>

"Paige?"

She hears the now familiar voice bringing her back what happened, what should be a dream, but isn't. Then she remembers,

"Emily." Paige whispers.

"Nope, just me, Hanna." she laughs lightly, but Paige can hear the worry in her voice.

Paige finally cracks her eyes open again and sees Hanna leaning over her.

"You wanna tell me why you keep saying Emily's name?" Hanna asks when the other girl finally looks at her.

"She's here! Emily, this girl, my friend from my time. I saw her. But it's impossible." Paige sighs as she moves to sit up.

"I would say nothing is impossible at this point. You do remember the whole traveling through time thing right?" Hanna takes a seat next to Paige, trying not to seem too curious. She wants to know but she doesn't want to push her. Something clicks then."Wait, you fainted when you saw my friend, who's name is Emily.."

"No it's impossible, she can't be here." Paige mumbles wiping at her eyes.

"Why?" Hanna asks taking the other girl's hand in her own.

"My Emily is dead." She can't hold back and collapses into Hanna sobbing quietly.

"Oh Paige, sweetie, I'm sorry." Hanna wraps Paige in a tight hug and starts rubbing circles on her back trying to comfort her.

"Oh hey! You woke up!" Emily says walking over the the two girls.

Hanna feels Paige tense in her arms. And Paige looks up, wide eyes, mouth open, and freezes.

"Don't faint again." Hanna whispers in her the girl's ear, "It's her isn't it?"

Paige just nods once, not able to move any more than that. She can't take her eyes off Emily, and tears won't stop falling.

Emily's eyes meet Paige's, she looks so sad and lost. But she sees something behind the tears. Something incredibly familiar. LIke she's looked deep into these very same eyes before. Emily knows she's seen these eyes somewhere, she just can't place it. She doesn't know how long they'd been staring at each. Shaking her head to break the connection, she extends her hand to introduce herself,

"Paige right? I'm Emily."

Paige saw something in Emily's eyes, almost like she recognized her. But it only lasted a second. There was definitely a connection and she knew Emily felt it too. It was so strange, she looks exactly like her Emily, from the raven black hair, to the deep brown eyes, even those beautiful full lips..and that voice that makes her melt. She realizes she'd been staring at Emily's lips when she felt Hanna's elbow against her ribs trying to get her to respond.

"Oh, right. Um yea that's me, hi..hello." She lifts her hand lifts her hand into an awkward wave before shaking Emily's.

Emily's smile lights up and she can't help but to think how adorable this girl is. She ducks her head trying to hide her smile and notices the clothes still on the table. She was trying so hard to make eye contact with Paige again that she didn't realize the girl was still dressed in that cowgirl outfit.

"Oh! Here, Hanna said you needed to borrow some clothes."

Paige jerks her hand out of Emily's surprised by the other girls exclamation.

"Sorry." Emily grimaces, picking up the clothes and handing them over to Paige.

"It's alright, thank you." Paige's voice is practically a whisper. She unfolds the clothes, inspecting them. She clears her throat to speak louder this time. "Thank God, I was hoping I wouldn't have to have to wear anything like Hanna's outfit." She states with a straight face. But seeing Hanna's glare she shoots her a wink.

Emily stifles a laugh, earning herself a glare from Hanna as well, "Can I ask you why you're dressed like that anyways?" she finally asks the question she's had since the cowgirl walked into The Brew.

"Um..." Paige looks around avoiding eye contact with Emily more than she already was, somehow knowing that if she looks into those eyes again she'll spill everything. She's not sure she wants to tell her, not yet anyway. She still needs to wrap her head around this Emily that looks and sounds exactly like her Emily, "Can I change first?"

"Yea of course, bathroom is just around that corner." Emily points in the direction of the bathroom and sits in a chair on the other side of the table to wait.

Paige glances at Hanna with pleading eyes. Once the other girl catches on she gets up and motions for Paige to follow her.

Once in the bathroom Hanna lets out a small giggle, which earns her a glare from Paige.

"Hanna, this isn't funny! That's Emily...my Emily. She looks just like her...and her voice...it's too much." Paige leans against the wall and slides down to sit on the floor.

Hanna stops laughing when she notices how upset Paige is.

"Wow, her death really messed you up huh? You act like you were in love with her."

Paige snaps her head up, eyes going wide, "No, no I wasn't. I mean, I barely knew her. We were friends...new friends. Just friends." she says stumbling over her words.

Hanna just points at her and grins, "Oh my God, you were! You're so cute!"

Paige's eyebrows scrunch together, "Wait, you don't care? It's not normal and this whole situation is crazy."

Hanna lowers her hand, her grin turning into a smirk, "Different times remember? Most people don't care anymore. Love is love." She pauses when she sees Paige's expression hasn't changed. "Come on Paige! I know it's gotta be hard...and weird. But she's here...out there...alive. And if this is some strange reincarnation thing then I think this is what's supposed to happen."

Paige relaxes a bit, mumbling to herself about how Hanna is a lot smarter than she seems before clearing her throat to speak, "Yea, I gues you're right. But what do I do? What do I tell her?"

"She already knows somethings up, I can tell. And she's seen what you're wearing. Plus you were kinda talking in your sleep, you said her name. She will ask you about it, so I'd say just tell her the truth. She's had enough people in her life lying to her." Hanna holds a hand out to help Paige to her feet, "Let's get you changed, I'm sure she's wondering what we're doing in here. And I don't htink you want her thinking there's anything going on between us." she says winking at Paige.

Paige groans, "Oh no, i did? Yea, let's hurry up, I don't want her thinking that." she says looking nervous now. Her hands are shaking making it difficult to get her chaps off and thinking about how to tell Emily.

Hanna puts a comforting hand on Paige's shoulder making the girl stop what she was doing. "Hey P, take a deep breath ok? Maybe take it one step at a time and not mention how you were in love with someone who looks just like her. Besides, you don't know if you'll feel the same way about this Emily. It'll be ok."

Paige takes a deep breath and sighs, "Right, good idea, let's do this."

She finishes changing and comments on how comfortable the clothes are as they walk back to where Emily is waiting for them.

"Took you guys long enough. Hanna you aren't cheating on Caleb with your new friend here are you? Emilys smirks and starts laughing when she sees the stunned look on Paige's face.

"Very funny Em. No I would never. But Paige here would like to explain about her sexy cowgirl outfit now." Hanna looks to Paige and jerks her head towards the couch.

Paige moves to sit down, ringing her hands together, "Ok well, you see, I'm from here...but not here here..."

_DING_

The three girls look towards the door to see two brunettes walk into the coffee shop, one much taller than the other.

Emily stands up, "Hey guys!" she says walking over and giving the girls each a hug. She motions them over to where she was sitting before.

"Guys, this is Hanna's friend Paige. Paige this is Aria and Spencer." Emily points to the shorter girl, then the taller one.

Paige waves and forces a smile, "Damn." she breaths out.

Hanna puts her arm around Paige's shoulders and squeezes. "It's ok, you can tell her later. We'll just hang out for a little bit."

"Ok.." Paige says sounding sad now. But she's glad she has more time to think is over, and she doesn't really want to explain everything to the two new girls who she knows nothing about. Paige realizes how weird that sounds, but she feels close to Hanna already, probably because of how much she's help her. And Emily is Emily, even if she knows they aren't the same person, she still feels like she can trust her. If she doesn't have to explain now then she has something else she needs to do.

"Um also, can I ask you about what all that stuff was in that room I changed in...the bathroom?" Paige whispers into Hanna's ear.

"Oh honey, yes later." Hanna giggles and gives Paige another squeeze before getting up to hug her friends.


End file.
